Apparatus for extracting bituminous oil, oil compounds, and other products from sand rock and other material.



s. R. MURRAYK; G- B. MGDERMAND. APPARATUS FOR EXTRAGTING BITUMINOUS OIL,0.1L COMPOUNDS, AND OTHER PRODUCTS FROM SAND ROCK AND OTHER MATERIAL.

\ APPLICATION FILED SEYPT. 26, 1911. 1 gg g g Patented Apr. 29, 1913.

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untrue earns reruns orific SAMUEL E. MURRAY AND GEORGE E. MCDERMANI), OF

.TO THE'ROCKY MOUNTAIN ASPHALT MINING AND DENVER, COLORADO, ACORPORATION OF COLORADO.

DENVER. COLORADO, ASSIGNORS OIL BEFINING COMPANY, OF

APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING BITUMINOUS OIL, OIL COMPOUNDS, AND OTHERPRODUCTS FROM SAND ROCK AND OTHER MATERIAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented a t-. as, rare.

Application filed September 26, 1911. Serial No. 851,453.

in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing bad to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters ofreference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention relates to apparatus for extracting bituminous 'oil, oilcompounds and other products, from sand rock and other material andconsists, broadly speaking, of a retort adapted to contain a charge tobe treated, the said charge resting upon a filter bed located directlyabove a chamber adapted to receive a volatile substance, as gasolene,the said chamber being equipped with heating coils for purposes ofvolatilizetion.

The retort is provided with a liftable hood, normally liquid sealed, thelower edge of the hood dipping into an annular chambcr surrounding thetop of the body of the retort. In communication with the top of the hoodof the retort is a condenser to which the vapor, formed by volatilizingthe liquid in the bottom of the retort, is passed, the said condenserserving to return the gas to its liquid or normal condition, after whichit is allowed to flow back into the re tort and pass downwardly throughthe same charge, washing out the biti'uninous or oil compounds in thesand rock and carrying the same downwardly into the chamber inthe bottomof the retort, where the volatile liquid and the extracted oil compoundare n'iingled. A. separation is then edected by 'revolatilizinu thevolatile substance and causing the vapor to pass again upwardly throughthe charge, after which it is recondensed in the cooler and drawn off ina reservoir. The bituminous or oil compounds, Wl'llCll have beenseparated from the charge of sand rock, may be drawn oil' at the bottomof the retort, after which the hood is lifted and the gangue or solidmaterial removed, and a new charge substituted.

. In this view, let the numeral 5 designate a retort, having a filterbed 6 in the bottom thereof, which may be composed of any suitablematerial. As illustrated in the drawing, it consists of upper and lowerperforated plates 7 and 8, with an intervening layer 9 of mesh material.Below this filter bed is a relatively small compartment 10, in which isplaced a coil 12 of pipe, having a steam inlet 13 and an outlet 14,whereby steam or other suitable heating medium may be circulated throughthe said chamber. The body of this chamber is equipped with an outletpipe 15 controlled by a valve 16. Above the filter medium. 6 of theretort is a relatively large chamber 17, adapted to receive a charge 18of material to be treated. Surrounding the upper extremity of the retortis an annular chamber 3.9,which extends below the top of the retort, andadapted to hold a quantity of liquid whereby the top of the retort issealed when the hood 21 is in the closed position, as illustr. i thedrawing. This hood is of such size as to dip into the liquid seal 20 ofthe chamber 19 and occupy a position surrounding the upper extremity ofthe retort. The hood is of oval shape, and it is equipped at its topwith an outlet pipe 22, which is connected by means of a T-coupling 23,with a pipe 24-, provided with a T-co'upling 25, from which a branchpipe 26 extends upwardly.

From the upper extremity of the pipe 26 a pipe member 27' extendshorizontally into a chamber 28, cbi taining {1 quantity of coolingliquid, the pipe 27 merging into a coil or series of pipe members 29arranged in parallel relation and in connection with the a chambercontaining the cooling liquid, contank 36.

draw-oit faucet 38.

condenser is provided at the top with an inlet pipe 39 and at the bottomwith a valve controlled outlet pipe 40. The hood 21 may at a beliftedfrom the retort by means of a cable 41, passing over a pulley 42,the cable lead ing to a drum (not shown), or any other suitable means,adapted to accomplish the urpose,

In order to lift the hood, the pipe 24, which is. connected with theT-coupling 23, must be detached from the T-coupling 25 by removing thebolts 43, which connect meeting flanges 44 and 45, which are providedwith registering perforations to receive the said bolts.

From the foregoing description, the use and operation of our improvedapparatus will be readily understood. A charge of asolene, or othersuitable volatile liquid, is placed within the chamber 10 below thefilter bed 6. A charge of material, as sand rock, carrying bituminous oroil compounds, is placed in the retort upon the filter bed. Steam orother suitable heating medium is passed through the coil 12 within thechamber 10. Assuming that the hood is in the closed position, wherebyits lower edge dips into the liquid seal 20 surrounding the upperextremity of the retort, the apparatus is in condition for use.

The heating of the volatile liquid within the chamber 10 forms the saidliquid into a vapor, which passes up through the filter bed, and thencethrough the charge 18 of sand'rock, thesaid gas serving to free thebituminous and oil compounds within the charge. The vapor, after passingthrough the said charge, rises in the hood, and passes through theoutlet 22, and thence through the pipe 24, thevalve 33, which is open,the pipe member 32 and thence into the condenser, first entering thelowermost pipe 31 thereof, the vapor rising in the condenser until it iscondensed, after which it automatically returns by the same route andpasses back into the retort and the charge 18 and in its passage servesto wash out the freed bituminous and oil compounds which are carried bythe volatile The chamber of the down through liquid downwardly throughthe filter bed into the chamber 10. The said chamber, in this event,contains the bituminous and oil compounds to be extracted in combinationwith the volatile liquid, which has served to produce the extraction.The said liquid is again volatilizcd by heating the same in the mannerheretofore described, whereby it is all formed into a vapor and passedupwardly through the retort, thence'into and through the pipe 24 andagain upwardly through the valve 34, which is open, (the valve 33 beingclosed), and thence through the pipe 26 into the condenser, where it isreturned to its liquid state and passes thence down through the pipe 35and the valve 3?, whiclris open, into the tank 36.

It must be understood that, during the first step of the process, viz.,while the gas from the volatile liquid is caused to pass through thecondenser, whereby it is condensed and returned to the retort in liquidform,--the valve 34 must be closed, while the valve is open until thevapor is produced. At the same time, the valve 37 is closed. Now, duringthe second step of the operation, viz.,-during the separation 01: thevolatile liquid from the extracted product within the chamber. 10, thevalve 33 is closed, and the valves 34 and 37 opened, allowing the gas topass to the condenser where it is returned to liquid form, after whichit flows into the storage tank, as heretofore explained.

The storage reservoir 36 may be connected with the chamber 10 of theretort by a pipe- 46, leading from the bottom of the reservoir to thetop of the chamber. This pipe is equipped with a valve 47. After thevolatile li uid has been separatedfrom the extracted product and thelatter has been drawn off from the chamber 10, the valve 47, which isnormally closed, is opened and the volatile liquid allowed to pass bygravity from the reservoir 36 to the chamber 10 for re-use. After thesaid chamber has been supplied with a suflicient quantity, the valve 47is closed and kept closed until asecond charge has been treated in thesame manner and occasion arises for re-supplying the chamber 10 with thecondensed volatile liquid.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is:

In apparatus for extractingproducts from sand rock and other material,the combination of a retort having a diaphragm, separatin the retortinto two compartments,

U a means for heating the lowercompartment,

tan

a. condenser, a connection between the retort 1 g and the condenser. forpassing the gas to the condenser and returning it to the retort inliquid form, said connection comprising a common pipe connected with theretort, an

upwardly-extending branch pipe in conneciion Wnh ihe \ipper extremityofthe 0011- In testimony whereof we aflix our signadenser, a return pipefrom the condenser to tures in presence of two witnesses.

the wmmon pipe member avalve located gin "the said return pipe, anohervalve located SAMUEL MURRAY m H1 upwardly-extending branch pipe a GEORGEMCDERMAND' gioraga reserv01r,and avalve-contg'olled pi pe Withesses:leading fmm ighe said-return plpe to the GLoRA E. BRADENf Sim-agereservoir, substantially as desgribed. A. EBERT OBRIEN.

